Hush Your Mouth, Let the Music Do the Talking
by screaming-poetically
Summary: Slightly AU. That summer was the summer they found love, and they would do anything to hold onto it. FWHG.


**Title:** Hush Your Mouth (Let the Music Do the Talking)  
**Pairing: **Fred/Hermione.  
**Rating: **FRT.  
**Word count:** 1, 768.  
**Warnings:** Minor spoilers for DH.  
**Prompt:** Put your iTunes on shuffle, and write a drabble based on each of the first ten songs that play.  
**Summary:** Slightly AU. That summer was the summer they found love, and they would do anything to hold onto it.  
**Disclaimer:** The names of all characters contained herein are the property of JK Rowling. No infringements of these copyrights are intended, and are used here without permission.

1. Beach Baby – Bon Iver  
Fred watches as Hermione wanders outside the Burrow, her hand coasting along the tall weeds as she walks. He knows that she's trying to be happy; for Harry and Ron, for Bill and Fleur, for all of them. But he knows that there's more to her. He can see the subtle changes in her eyes when she looks around the house as if she expects that she'll never return.

He wants something better for her. He wishes that he knew how to make her happy, how to make her forget that they were all heading for a war that they had no escape from. People were going to get hurt, they were going to die, and there was nothing they could do except fight alongside them.

He just wants to help her, more than anything he's ever wanted in his life.

2. English Girls Approximately – Ryan Adams  
He catches her alone out in the garden one day, and he ignores her protesting as he tugs her away from the Burrow and towards the woods on the other side of the house. "I have something to show you," he says, and Hermione frowns but she doesn't protest too much after that.

They walk deep in the forest, their conversation covering everything from Quidditch to how exasperating Ron can be, and she tells him about the memory charm she cast on her parents. He tells her that he wants to be his own man, has always wanted to be, not just part of a pair. As they walk, their hands intertwine.

She laughs, and Fred thinks that it's the most glorious sound he's ever heard. He vows then to do anything in his power to make her laugh and be happy, and he'll keep on doing it for the rest of his life.

They reach the clearing that Fred had been aiming for. There's soft grass and simbelmyne flowers, and the air is fresh. Hermione lays down in the grass and looks up to gaze at the clouds. He lays alongside her and for hours they talk and point out shapes in the clouds, their hands still intertwined. It's the best day of Fred's life, and when Hermione looks at him softly, kisses him on the cheek and whispers "Thank you", he's pretty sure that he could deal with a lifetime of this.

3. All Apologies – Nirvana  
It's the night before Bill and Fleur's wedding, and Fred meets Hermione in the kitchen at an absurdly late hour. Neither of them can sleep, and he holds her close as she tells him that she'll be going away for a while. He doesn't say anything, but the way he holds her that much tighter tells Hermione everything she'll need to know. They've been going on like this for months, weeks, this secret that they enjoy more of each other than anyone could ever imagine.

"I'm going to dance with you tomorrow," Fred says, "and I will kiss you in front of everyone. I want everyone to know. I want you to know. There's no one else—"

Hermione asks him not to make empty promises, but he looks into her eyes and the love therein is anything but empty, so she leans up and kisses him on the mouth.

"I'll wait for you," Fred whispers as they lay down together in his bed. "I will always wait."

4. Swept Away – Mandy Moore  
Before Ron can say anything, Fred snatches Hermione from her seat for the first dance. He holds her possessively and close, and he knows that Ron is glowering at them, but he can't care. He doesn't.

Hermione looks at him with guarded love in her eyes, but her smile is bright and he smiles back. They twirl and sway over the dance floor, and he can see out of the corner of his eye, his mother pointing and whispering to his father.

"This can all be yours one day," he finds himself saying. "The wedding, the family. It can be yours."

Hermione tilts her head, considering. "Will I get a red-headed husband, like Fleur has?"

He smiles down at her. "Only if it's me."

She nods. "I think I'd like that, very much."

They keep dancing and for the moment, it's good enough. Right now they have each other and this promise of a future together, and for both of them, that's enough. It's all they have, really. But they are young, happy, and in love. And that's something worth fighting for.

At the end of the dance he swirls Hermione and kisses her soundly on the mouth, in front of the entire Order of the Phoenix, his extended family, and even wizards that he has no knowledge of. He doesn't care. He loves her.

5. Aurora – Foo Fighters  
She walks through the wilderness with Ron and Harry as they search for the horcruxes, but when she lies in bed she has dreams of a tall and lanky red-headed man with a bright smile. She keeps walking because it's the right thing to do and if she wants to see him again, if she wants to marry him and make a family and settle down to a (somewhat) quiet life full of love and chaos, then she has to make it through. They all do.

Fred starts up the radio broadcast system for the Order with George, not because it's a good thing to do or even because it needs to be done, but because he wants for Hermione to hear his voice and know that he's alive and still waiting. He's beginning to think that George has caught on that this is something real and tangible, but since he's his twin, he doesn't really mind.

"You love her," George says one day as Fred's fiddling with the radio they use to send out the broadcasts.

"Yes. Of course." Fred looks up from the radio. He's more honest in that moment than he has been in his entire life, and his twin grins and slaps him on the back.

"Let's get her home to you then," George says, and kneels to help Fred with the radio.

Somewhere in the wilderness, Hermione is afraid, but she looks up at the sky and knows that better days are coming.

6. Strange Love – Goo Goo Dolls  
Fred runs through the halls of Hogwarts looking for Hermione. He finally sees her talking with McGonnagal, Ron and Harry. He tries to control himself but he finds that he's run over to her and pulled her tight against him, and that he's whispering things in her ear.

Things that sound suspiciously like _sweet merlin, don't you ever leave me like that again_— and _bloody hell I was so worried_ and _I love you I love you I love you._

She's whispering something back, and it takes a few moments before Fred realizes it's _I love you too_.

7. In This Diary – The Ataris  
After the war, Hermione shows him the journal she kept during the summer and while she wandered in the wild with Harry and Ron. It's full of half-written out ideas for spells and what she wants to do when she's grown. It has plans for the Ministry and SPEW, and it has her worries written down in a neat hand that he knows he wouldn't have been able to keep if he was doing half of the things that she ended up doing.

Somewhere along the line, her journal became hope and kisses stolen in secret and love, and she blushes as she shows him the _Mrs. Frederick Weasleys_ that she has scrawled alongside small hearts.

Fred shows her the picture of the two of them that he had stitched inside his jacket, right above his heart.

They finally got this right, he thinks as she leans her head against his shoulder.

8. Nobody Knows – Tony Rich Project  
One night Hermione has a dream that things ended differently. She dreams of a wall broken and a red-headed man lying still, never to joke or laugh or kiss her again. She feels grief, keener than she's ever felt in her entire life. It swallows her whole, and she's lost in a black pit of despair, and when she wakes she acknowledges that dreams should never feel that real. She slides closer to Fred in the brass bed that they share in the flat above Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, and she throws an arm across his stomach as she leans her head on his shoulder.

Fred dreams too, but he dreams of a future in which he never told Hermione how he felt. He's lonely and aching, but he watches her marry Ron and even in the dream he thinks, _that should have been me_. Even though they're both alive and well, he feels as if he's dying inside. He misses her even when she's standing right next to him, and it hurts more than he's ever imagined.

He wakes and pulls her even closer to him. He presses a kiss to the top of her head and whispers, "I don't want to wait anymore for the rest of our lives to start."

9. Sad Songs – The Frames  
They get married at the Burrow, surrounded by their friends and family. Some people that should have been there are instead lying in a cemetery miles away, but Tonks and Remus and Colin Creevey and Percy will always be with them in some way.

The two of them have vowed that they will move forward, together, and remember but not let the sadness eat away at them. They will make happy memories and raise a fine family. He will make her laugh and she will give a firm hand when he gets too big for his britches. After all, he thinks as they share their first kiss and their loved ones stand and clap, being funny is serious business. And they have the rest of their lives…

10. Blackout – Muse  
There are children, of course; three of them, two girls and a boy. It is George and Katie who get the twins, but Fred finds that he's perfectly content where he is. He and Hermione work in the shop in Diagon Alley while George and Katie man the one in Hogsmeade.

He finds that he is most content with Hermione next to him, laughing brightly as they work and he tries out some new joke product. He looks back on everything that brought them to this moment, and through all of the joy and the sorrow, he finds that it was all worth it.


End file.
